The Halo Games Will Arrive on PCs Later This Year Via Steam

By
Michael KanMarch 13, 2019, 3:44 a.m.

343 Industries is focused on making all the Halo titles perfectly compatible with mouse and keyboard controls, and ensuring they support multiple screen resolutions and different frame rates. However, the games will arrive one by one starting with Halo: Reach.

The Halo game series is finally coming to PCs.

On Tuesday, the games' developer 343 Industries announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection was arriving to Windows via both the Microsoft Store and Steam.

The games will start dropping one by one later this year, so that the development teams can faithfully transfer each title to the PC and let gamers begin enjoying them right away.

"Our current plan is for this journey to begin with the launch of Halo: Reach — the fictional beginnings of Master Chief's saga — with the rest of the titles following in chronological order thereafter," 343 Industries said in the announcement.

The games will also be more than just a basic PC port, according to 343 Industries' community director Brian Jarrard. "All the bells and whistles you'd expect to find on a modern PC title, that's the kind of thing the team is really committed to doing," he said on Microsoft's Inside Xbox show.

As a result, 343 Industries is focused on making all the Halo titles perfectly compatible with mouse and keyboard controls, and ensuring they support multiple screen resolutions and different frame rates. "And yes, there will be support for Xbox gamepads and other PC controllers," 343 Industries said in the announcement.

The Halo games were originally launched as Xbox exclusive titles starting with the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, which arrived back in 2001. The original games were then compiled into a new Master Collection, which was released for the Xbox One in 2014.

Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing and when the games will exactly arrive. The developer also cautioned that one game in the series may have different PC features than another. In the meantime, 343 Industries plans on keeping the community in the loop about the upcoming collection via the developer's website.

The Halo: Master Chief Collection is currently available for Xbox One for $29.99. It originally only included the four first Halo games. However, on Tuesday, 343 Industries said it was also bringing Halo: Reach to the Xbox One collection as downloadable content.

"Halo: Reach's multiplayer content (which includes Forge and the Theater) will be automatically included for everyone who owns MCC while Halo: Reach's Campaign and Firefight experiences will be offered together as a premium digital add-on," the developer said. "Xbox Game Pass subscribers will have access to the entirety of Halo: Reach within MCC as part of their subscription."

About the Author

Michael has been a PCMag reporter since October 2017. He previously covered tech news in China from 2010 to 2015, before moving to San Francisco to write about cybersecurity. His Twitter is @Michael_Kan. See Full Bio